My wife & I have recently
returned from an excellent trip to the northern regions of this great
land. We covered 14,000 ks travelling to Darwin thru western NSW
& Qld via places like Carnarvon Gorge, Normanton & Karumba, Adel's
Grove & Lawn Hill NP, Gregory Downs on the Barkley Highway, Mataranka
Homestead, Katherine, and the Douglas/Daly area. We returned via
Litchfield and Kakadu NPs, then down the Stuart H'way to Alice
Springs and
Port Augusta, with a side trip to King's Canyon. Our final leg was across
the Hay Plains back to Canberra. Although strictly speaking
this was a "non-birding" holiday I grabbed the binoculars at every opportunity
and managed 171 species ranging from Sparrows
& Starlings to Jabirus & Jacanas - and racked up 41
new species in the process. Unfortunately despite getting the pre-trip
good oil from John Cummings I dipped out on the Gouldian
Finch.
Some
highlights:
Somewhere between
Lake Cargelligo and Bourke - first new bird for the
trip sighted, a Letter-winged
Kite, followed a few days later by Squatter Pigeon and Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
at Carnarvon Gorge. Additional bonus here was a brief glimpse of a
Platypus in the creek.
Normanton/Karumba. Lots of
birds, including Brolgas and Saurus Cranes, and Green Pygmy-geese. And Crocodile birds, aka Bar-shouldered Dove. The
nick-name comes from its constant call: "Thewaterscool,
thewaterscool", inviting the hot weary tourist to go for a refreshing swim
...... where ol' man croc is waiting. Well, that's what I was told by a
well informed fellow tourist.
Adel's Grove canoe paddle on Lawn
Hill Creek. Despite the leaky unstable craft it was a magic early morning
experience - no wind, tranquil waters, unbelievable birdsong and some great
birds including Red-winged Parrots
and at least 3 Black Bitterns.
At one stage a croc (freshie) stuck its snout up for a breath of fresh air only
a few metres in front of us. Then there was the Black-headed Python
slowly gliding across the canoe launching pad before disappearing into the
pandanus roots.
Barkley
Highway - seen while driving. Grey
raptor sighted: Followed by another sighting about 10 k later of 3 similar
birds, grey wings & black tips matching the Simpson & Day illustration
of a Grey Falcon. The
illustration is of the bird flying, top view. The first bird and
one in the second group were kind enough to bank as we approached, giving me
that "top" view. I should point out that as we were moving on both
occasions I only had maybe a four second window to focus on that single
diagnostic (obviously no time for detailed observation), but after seeing
countless Kestrels and brown raptors the grey was a refreshing change - and
yes, I ticked it! Interestingly a notice posted at Barkley Homestead
where we stayed asks for details of possible Grey Falcon
sightings.
Mataranka Homestead. Some nice
birds here including 2 pairs of displaying Shining Flycatchers and another female
bird all within close proximity, White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike and Forest Kingfisher. Some
spotlighting at night showed up 2 freshwater crocs (one quite large) basking
where the magnificent thermal pool meets the
Waterhouse River. A "double hoot" owl call
heard - Powerful Owl I thought, later found that P Os are not found in this part
of the country. The deep double hoot would therefore have to be a Rufous Owl. I was later to catch
a glimpse of one in the Darwin Botanic Gardens.
Katherine Gorge canoe paddle.
Queuing up for the paddles, life jackets and canoe, then having a dozen canoes
going all over the place in front of us, helicopters buzzing overhead and the
whole place crawling non-stop with boatloads of tourists. Really a bit of
a shambles compared with the serenity of Lawn Hill Creek, but the sighting of an
Osprey perched on a dead branch high
up on the cliff face was worth it along with the magnificent gorge
itself.
Woolianna on the
Daly River - Douglas/Daly area. At
sunset, a huge number of Magpie-larks assembled on the
powerlines, impossible to count because of the constant movement to and from the
adjacent mango trees, but bigger than any similar assembly of Starlings I've
ever seen. My gut feeling was in excess of a thousand birds, but no sign
of them next morning, at least not those numbers. As we only stayed one
night I don't know whether this was a regular occurrence or a one off
event. Where from, where to and why?
Darwin. Visited the tourist info
centre trying to get some "local knowledge" and was given contact details for
local birding identity Denise Goodfellow. Don't go to Fogg Dam, she said -
there's a croc causing problems there. Sure enough, next day's NT News had
a front page photo of said croc at that location. Her safe plan B option
was Howard Springs where I scored my
personal favourite for the trip. An iridescent blue flash caught my eye as
my first Rainbow Pitta emerged from
the shadowy gloom of the dense vegetation. I had it in full view at fairly
close range for about 20 minutes as it hopped around feeding at the edge of
the rainforest. On the foreshore at Fannie Bay I scored a diverse trifecta of new
species: Beach Stone-curlew, Pied
(Torres
Strait) Imperial-Pigeon, and Red-headed
Honeyeater.
The bush at the back of our Berrimah van park produced 4 new Honeyeaters: Bar-breasted,
Rufous-banded, Rufous-throated, and Dusky, along with Red-back Fairy Wrens, & Double-barred, Long-tailed and Crimson
Finches, plus many other species. A bluewater charter out of Cullen
Bay Marina provided Wilson's Storm
Petrels - every time the boat stopped the (same?) birds were there, joined
on one occasion by three Brown
Boobies. (IDs confirmed by boat crew).
Cooinda - Kakadu NP. We joined
the masses for a cruise on Yellow Water Billabong - no paddling here, and
with good reason! Crocs aplenty. Birdlife amazing. New species
Plumed Whistling Duck and Pied Heron. Towards the end of a
totally absorbing 90 minutes we were lucky enough to witness two birds
fishing. Firstly, an Azure
Kingfisher, unphased by the boat, left its perch dived towards us
and returned to its branch with a small fish in its bill. A few
minutes later a White-bellied Sea
Eagle successfully pounced and with powerful wing beats carried off a
large fish (Barramundi I think) clasped in one talon. What a
contrast!
Alice
Springs. The
Desert Park is a must for visitors to the
Alice. I did a lap of the external
perimeter and was rewarded with another new species, a small group of Spinifex Pigeons. Also
renewed acquaintance with the Splendid
Fairy Wren - they're still splendid. And a Pied Honeyeater, found dead, possibly
the victim of a collision with the perimeter fence.
Port
Augusta. Last new species here at the
Australian Arid Lands Botanic Gardens - Chirruping Wedgebill and probable Rufous Fieldwren. As Julian noted
in his trip report, there were many birds which will forever remain a
mystery.
Forgot to mention : at Nardoo
Station near Cunnamulla and again at Springvale Station near Katherine I saw
mid-sized ground feeding speckled grey birds which I identified as
Helmeted Guinea Fowl. I may be wrong as Simpson & Day
says there are feral populations on Great Barrier Reef islands, but they are not
on official Australian list yet, though domestic escapes may exist here and
there. Is anyone who has been to either place able to confirm their
presence or offer an alternative identification?
Cheers
Rod
Rod Mackay
Tel. 0407 456
330
